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Sunday, 02 September 2018

MONTJANE AND OHTANI FALL SHORT IN ST. LOUIS DOUBLES FINAL

South Africa’s Kgothatso Montjane and her doubles partner Momoko Ohtani staged a fight but came up short in the women's doubles final losing to Dutch second seeds Marjolein Buis and Aniek van Koot on Saturday at the US Open USTA Wheelchair Championships, part of the UNIQLO Wheelchair Tennis Tour, in St Louis.

The dutch second seeds Buis and Van Koot won their second Super series crown after edging out the South African-Japanese pair 6-1 2-6 6-1, but not before being taken a third and deciding set by the first-time partnership of Montjane and Ohtani.

With Montjane and Ohtani having already beaten top seeds Yui Kamiji and Lucy Shuker on Friday in the semi-final round, they were comfortably on top in the second set of the final. However, they were unable to sustain their challenge in the deciding set and Buis and Van Koot went on to record three straight sets win in their fifth final together this season.

"Obviously, we would have loved to have won it, we were playing so well together but that's not the case," Montjane said afterwards.

Despite the loss, Montjane will take confidence from a good week reaching the singles quarter-finals and edging out top seeds to reach the doubles final.

"This week has been great, I played my best tennis. Despite the loss there’s lot of positives to take from it, keep working hard, building and trying to improve."

“It was a great preparation for next week’s US Open Grand Slam in New York – I am looking forward to the challenge, I feel ready,” added Montjane.

The 32-year-old Montjane now moves on to the US Open which starts from 6-9 September in New York, the event will mark Montjane’s fourth Grand Slam in 2018.